Week 5

Well then, one month, 200 pages, and tons of good insight from the panel.

This week:

Bethesda and the Sanhedrin
Imprisonment and Death of John
“The Kingdom of God Is at Hand”
“Is Not This the Carpenter’s Son?”
The Call by the Sea

Chapter 18: “He Must Increase”

“If he [John the Baptist] had announced himself as the Messiah, and raised a revolt against Rome, priest and people would have flocked to his standard.” DA173

Quotes like this may be troubling for those who don’t believe Ellen White had inside knowledge. I’m not bothered by that idea, so I love “if… then…” statements like the one above.  My favorite “if… then…” statements by Ellen White regards the rejection of righteousness by faith that was more deeply discovered at the 1888 general conference session. I’ll have to track down the quote, but it says that Jesus would have come soon after 1888 if the message of righteousness by faith had been fully accepted. How disappointing! We may have been out of here by now! But truly the message is still in the Bible as it was in 1888–even if it hasn’t been fully tapped. And that is exciting. It is through the truth about righteousness and faith that I was reborn. I may have never come upon it if it were not for the 1888 session, but God would have let me there by another route. God uses what ever works and is in keeping with His character.

But Ellen White is right in saying, that people turn to the messenger for validation. A similar thing happened with 1888 as did with John’s followers. They focused on the first message bearer rather than the message and it’s true origin. Our focus should not be on Johns and Waggoner, Robert Weiland, or even John the Baptist. The messages they gave is no less important today than it was before these men were born.

“But, like John’s disciples, many feel that the success of the work depends on the first laborer. Attention is fixed upon the human instead of the divine, jealousy comes in, and the work of God is marred. The one thus unduly honored is tempted to cherish self-confidence. He does not realized his dependance on God. The people are taught to rely on man for guidance, and thus they fall into error, and are led away from God.” DA176.

Focusing on the messenger is no less a problem today then it was in John’s day or Ellen White’s day. Do you think it’s even worse today because of media penetration?

Week 4

Thank you for your prayers for Marty and his family this week. His family will continue to need those prayers, so especially those of you who know Debbie, Amanda, and Alex, please remember them this week.

I also have a need for divine help in finding a roommate. It would help me afford life while in school, and we’ve already been praying about this.

Of course, thank you for praying to know and understand Jesus better. I’m very pleased that my mother wrote for Ch. 14, and I invite anyone who finds a specific chapter inspiring to claim it as your own and write up the devotional for the day. Just let me know: wallygoots@yahoo.com

Here are a couple guidelines for writing:

A. It can be approached in many ways. I look for a theme, relevance, or special challenges balanced by encouragement. I pick quotes that my heart naturally wonders about and my mind develops. Pertinent questions is one way of developing interest.

B. Formatting is easy. Block paragraph style as opposed to indenting. Quotes are in bold and should reflect the original text and be set off with quotation marks. A reference should follow each quote. I generally use a DA### citation after the quote. And spell check is your friend.

C. Less is more. Some chapters have so much, that it is hard to choose what to highlight. I want to give a representation, not assuming the readers of this blog have read the chapter. But, everything can’t be covered so it’s best to pick one or two topics to focus on, and make the words count. I also try to trim out words that aren’t necessary.

This week:

In His Temple
Nicodemus
“He Must Increase”
At Jacob’s Well
“Except You See Signs and Wonders”
Have a great week.

Seth

Week 3

What to you think of the book so far? I especially appreciate how Ellen extracts and applies the lessons in vivid and practical language. She is honest–sometimes brutally honest–and then enchantingly inspirational. Do you think she actually saw scenes from the life of Jesus in vision?

This week:

The Baptism
The Temptation
The Victory
“We Have Found the Messias”
At the Marriage Feast

Thanks for reading along. If any of you find a chapter of special interest and want to write the daily on it, email me at wallygoots@yahoo.com

Have a great week,

Seth

Chapter 9: Days of Conflict

“The requirements of society and the requirements of god were in constant collision. Men were departing from the word of God, and exalting theories of their own invention.” DA77

“These walls of partition He overthrew. In His contact with men He did not ask, What is your creed? To what church to you belong? He exercised His helping power in behalf of all who needed help.” DA79

Essentially, Jesus continually bucked religious society in favor of Biblical truth, and He suffered pressure from His family and from religious leaders to conform to ideas they had made up. The Pharisees incited his mother and brothers to gang up on Him. What ideas have we made up as Adventists that Jesus would buck today? As Christians? As Americans? As a member of all three groups, I’m stunned to realize that I might resent Jesus as well if I had been His brother in today’s world. His goodness and my lack of goodness could have made a wedge between us. Or it may be bringing us together forever? Luckily, it is apparent that James and some of the other brothers did come around, so I think there is hope me thanks to the patience and unwavering love of Jesus.

So then, what ideas have we made up? I’m not talking about the 27 (or is it 28) fundamental beliefs? But a few ideas that come to mind that I would like to hold to the light shining from the Bible for examination are:

1. Only associating with people in “the church.”

2. Going to church for emotional self-satisfaction (feel good music/or a feel good messages indicate that the Holy Spirit is at work).

3. God loves us less when we sin and more when we are good. Worse yet, that we are lost when we sin and saved when we are good.

4. God will overlook sinning habits because of His grace, and that somehow we may achieve heaven without sacrificing self.

5. That God doesn’t have what it takes to do what he promises. Worse yet, that God chooses not to do as promised.

Week 2

I’ve very much enjoyed blogging the Desire of Ages this week. We had three snow days, which afforded extra time, but Calculus sections will have to be mashed into coming weeks, which will be killer.

Feedback on the blog is always fun, but I would most love each of my friends in Christ to be blessed as much as I have in route to a better connection with Jesus. One of the goals is to rope you in to reading also, and if you desire, writing with me. If ideas are planted for how this could best serve the goal of knowing Jesus and what it means to be in Him, please let me know.

The chapters for this week:

We Have Seen His Star
As A Child
The Passover Visit
Days of Conflict
The Voice in the Wilderness.

Peace,

Seth